• Close-up of a historical handwritten manuscript page in cursive ink, showing dense text on aged paper, held open by a person’s hand at the bottom edge.

Shining the spotlight on British cinema’s female stars

Britain has long had a contradictory relationship to movie stardom, as two articles from the fan magazine Picturegoer, both by the same writer, both from 1943, eloquently demonstrate. In October, Lionel Collier had asked hopefully ‘are we making our own…

George Mackay Brown and the Scottish Catholic Imagination

What do you imagine when you think about great Catholic art? Perhaps you call to mind the gilded pages of illuminated medieval manuscripts and the glories of Renaissance painting and sculpture. Maybe you recall more recent cinematic masterpieces, such as…

Scottish Migration Since 1600

Migration today is an increasingly contentious, even toxic, issue. It is being held responsible for Brexit, the coming to power of United States President Donald Trump and a rise in hate crimes. In such a climate we tend to forget…

Helmut Khol (left) and George H. W. Bush (right)

An Intricate Transatlantic Triangle: US, UK and German Relations

Since the Federal Republic of Germany’s admission into NATO in 1955, German–American relations have been a cornerstone of transatlantic and European security and stability. Both Washington and pre-unification Bonn championed liberal democracy, free trade and fundamental civil and human rights.…

Gaelic Satire and 18th Century Highland History

The benefit of studying Gaelic poetry in conjunction with conventional documentary sources to obtain a fuller understanding of the past is illustrated in Ellen L. Beard’s article in Northern Scotland, Volume 8.1. She presents newly-compiled information and perspectives on two…

Spanish Erotic Cinema

Sex and Spanish Cinema from Screen to Academia

An extract from the introduction of Spanish Erotic Cinema, edited by Santiago Fouz-Hernandez If there is something that the various writings on aspects of eroticism in Spanish films reveal it is that it is impossible to understand the history of…